Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston
In 2002, a successful community development corporation in Boston, Massachusetts was approached by two other organizations about potential mergers. Each organization had distinctive geographical and ethnic roots but there were clear financial and management advantages to be had from combining assets. In one case, merger discussions proceeded with the benefit of lawyers and common board connections. In the other case, despite good progress at the beginning, the merger talks became increasingly contentious with opposition from community groups who rallied political leadership to step in. This case offers the opportunity to analyze the action and decision-making of the three organizations using alliance, negotiations, organizing and strategic frameworks. It also allows the class to engage in discussion about the nature of "community" in community-based organizations. HKS Case Number 1921.0
Swot Analysis of "Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston" written by Roy Ahn, Christine W. Letts includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Community Merger facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Demographics, Financial management, Mergers & acquisitions, Negotiations, Strategic planning and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Community Merger, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Community Merger operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Community Merger
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Community Merger
Strengths Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Community Merger in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Community Merger has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Community Merger to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Community Merger in the sector have low bargaining power. Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Community Merger to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Community Merger has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Community Merger is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Roy Ahn, Christine W. Letts can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Community Merger in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Community Merger is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Community Merger is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Community Merger has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Community Merger has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Diverse revenue streams
– Community Merger is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Community Merger is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Community Merger has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston, in the dynamic environment Community Merger has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Community Merger has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Community Merger is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Community Merger supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Community Merger vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston, is just above the industry average. Community Merger needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Roy Ahn, Christine W. Letts suggests that, Community Merger is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston HBR case study mentions - Community Merger takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Community Merger is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Community Merger needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Community Merger to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Community Merger, firm in the HBR case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Community Merger has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Community Merger is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Community Merger can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Community Merger to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Community Merger can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Community Merger can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Community Merger can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Community Merger can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Community Merger can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Community Merger operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Community Merger can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Community Merger can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Community Merger can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Community Merger has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Community Merger to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Community Merger can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Community Merger can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Community Merger in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston, Community Merger may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Community Merger high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Community Merger can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Community Merger can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Community Merger needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Community Merger can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Community Merger needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Community Merger.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Community Merger in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Community Merger
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Community Merger.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Community Merger business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Merger Talks: The Story of Three Community Development Corporations in Boston is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Community Merger needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.